In conventional muzzleloading firearms, a flintlock is employed wherein a hammer, carrying a flint, strikes a frizzen positioned over a flash pan containing priming powder, to thereby produce a shower of sparks to ignite the powder. Heretofore, the flints employed required the skill of an artisan to form the flint into the desired shape and size in order to produce the required sparks when the flint strikes the frizzen. With the decline in the use of flintlock firearms, good handmade gunflints and the art of producing them also declined resulting in inferior flints to the dissatisfaction of gun-buffs interested in flintlock firearms.
To meet the demand for better sparking and longer lasting gunflints, it has been proposed to employ flints and striking wheels, such as those used in cigarette lighters. Such an arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,247,611 to C. L. Wilson dated Apr. 26, 1966. While the flint assembly disclosed in this patent is satisfactory for its intended purpose, it is subject to certain objections such as being built into the gun between the barrel and the stock and, thus, becoming an integral part of the gun and, therefore, not readily replaceable. Furthermore, the flint assembly disclosed in the aforementioned patent did not satisfy the desire of gun-buffs interested in firing an old flintlock gun employing the conventional hammer and frizzen.
To overcome these objections, the flint assembly of the present invention has been devised wherein a housing containing a flint and flint striking wheel, of the type used in cigarette lighters, is clamped between the hammer jaws of a conventional flintlock firearm. By this construction and arrangement, when the firearm trigger is pulled, the hammer is moved in a direction toward the frizzen so that the flint striking wheel rolls along the frizzen and the relative movement therebetween causes the wheel to rotate against the flint, thereby producing a shower of sparks toward the flash pan. By clamping the flint assembly between the jaws of the hammer, the desire of gun-buffs interested in firing an old flintlock gun is satisfied, and it facilitates the replacement of the flint assembly when desired with a minimum of effort.